my bad - naturally, i see that you have the 2006 iS, so a PDC is a standard... the PDC does stay on for a period of time when car is engaged in Drive, until the speed is over x MPH, then it shuts off... With the PDC option, you have a luxury of engaging the reverse camera by pressing the PDC button, even if you are not going in reverse, say, you are in Park... however, this might not be a preference in your situation.

But I really would like to see your solution for the reverse lights, so, keep us posted, when you get a chance to move on with your project.

:thumbup:

This is what I had in mind:
You have to isolate the charge at the relay from the low impedance of the incandescent bulb.




12V to rev light --------------Light Bulb-----------------GND
!
!
!
! + positif (anode)
X Diode
! - negatif (cathode)
!
!
!
!-------pos. capacitor minus-------------------GND
!
!
!
!
!
! +
O relay coil
! -
!
!
GND


Sorry for my lack of talent in ASCII design...

I installed the back up camera via a NavTool. I reluctantly wired a regular automotive relay to reverse light wire, to activate power to back up camera and NavTool's reverse switch, and believe it or not it worked. No capacitor , no diode , no flicker . I spliced into left reverse light wire where it came into trunk from the lower tail gate. it is white in color .
My car already had a DVD player installed in the back, with monitors in the back of the front head rests. I found a video out put from the player for "front monitor" free.
I hooked it up to video 1 input of NavTool. that worked too! (No I won't be watching movies while driving!)

:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

TerminatorX5; Your PDF file was a great guide, thanks. and as you mentioned, my camera position under the bumper is rather low. Now that everything works, I will invest in a better quality camera and position it by the license plate light.
I forgot to install an inline fuse! have to do that too.

Hi,
got it working and the result is posted at http://www.xoutpost.com/928272-post158.html.
Tomorrow i will post the pictures from the relay and capacitor.
I did not put the diode because i still have the incandescend bulb as rear light. When i change the rear bulb to LED bulb, i will put the diode.
Best regards,
Paulo

Great writeup! unfortunately I don't have the TV Module or PDC so i'd have to wire it directly to the little light that comes on next to "R" on the gear selector. but how to route the wire through everything?!?! lol

your rear seatbacks, are they foldable?

yeah, the rear seats have a reclining button and are foldable

your navtool is in the trunk, right?

so, you trigger wire input is in the trunk too...

your trigger wire - does it need +12V or (-) to operate the reverse camera?

to route the wire to the front, you will need to pull up your rear seat - yank it vertically up by placing your hand in the area where a right rear passenger would have his legs, between the legs area, and the same way from the left passenger area... the rear bottom of the seat is pressure fitted. before pulling the seat up, pull out as far as you can the middle belt and when the seat is up, tilt the seat towards the front of the car and the slack on the middle belt will help tiliting the seat up and away...

depending on which side you want to run the wire (probably left side)feed the wire from the trunk to the rear seat - you will need to either poke through using a coat hanger, or remove the plastic "floor" in the trunk that is closer to the rear seatback...

once the wire in the rear seat area, pull the plastic trim that is between the seat and the door and fish the wire there, then pull the door sill and fish wire there... secure wire to the existing cable by small zipties, so the wire is not floating around...

then fish the wire to the B-pillar, and from there you have three options:

1. run the wire from B-pillar to under the seat into the center console;

2. run the wire from B-pillar in-between the junction of the floor carpeting (this one may require seat removal!!) to center console;

3. run the wire from B-pillar through the front door sill to the front dash, fish the wire within the dash to the center console...

once in the center console, run the wire closer to the gear selector, and then attach the wire to the pin that we were talking about earlier... I would suggest some kind of a quick disconnect connector, that will allow you to disconnect the wire without cutting it in the future, should you wish to disassemble the setup...

let me know if this general directions give you any idea about how to run the wire from the back to the front...